Back Splash

Joseph and I spent whole week (actually 4 days) on back splash in our kitchen.

This is how it looks like before we bought the house...

This is how it looks like when the contractors finished the countertop and tore our back splash...

I'm too tired to write the story in words....

Let us just watch the pictures....

This is an advice for couple who are married and going to get married...

If you want to know a person, you can do the house remodeling together...

This is really an opportunity for us to work together.

We have been fighting since Joseph decided to do back splash by our owns.

I told Joseph it's not wise to do by ourselves at this moment. We're going back to Taiwan on 12/25 and the wedding is coming up.

He still wants to try...

Since he insists, I have to 順服~

The following is our progress....

DAY I----- (Tuesday 12/11/2007)

工欲善其事，必先利其器

We bought lots of equipments and materials on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning.

Look at Joseph---> He didn't know how to control the tile cutting machine very well at the first day so He was like 落湯雞 all day....

 

DAY II----- (Thursday, 12/13/2007)

Start to 貼瓷磚...

Joseph is getting used to control that machine...

And I am more familiar w/ the tiles...

Now it's 1:30am... We finally finish one small wall...

There's a 小插曲 which is our furniture arrived on Thursday morning...

This is our new dishwasher... but it doesn't look as nice as we thought...

Last but not the least.....Jiang-Jiang....

Our PA system arrived at the same day....

DAY III&IV----- (12/15~16/2007)

We finished tiling on Saturday night....

This is how it looks like...

We did grouting on Sunday afternoon after co-worker meeting...

Now we have to wait at least 3 days to seal the tiles....

Will upload more finished work after we clean up the kitchen...

If you see it carefully, you'll notice that the faucet is missing...

The countertop company hasn't sent a plumber to install our plumbing system in kitchen....

In the end of this page I would like to tell ppl who want to tile by themselves.

Do it if you have enough patience... and try to simplify the pattern if you don't have enough patience....

I have been sitting on my countertop for days...

I told Joseph that I might be the only sister in our fellowship who "SITS" on her countertop....

一輩子的遺憾...

If there's a 遺憾 in my life so far, that will be I don't have a wonderful memory of engagement...

One of our friends told me that her boyfriend proposed.

I was supposed to be happy for her, but I couldn't...

This is always my hurt...

Every time when ppl asking how Joseph proposed, I always 三言兩語帶過去.

木已成舟,

I can't ask him to propose now... (Unless I return the ring...),

I believe this will be my 一輩子的遺憾,

I can't tell my kids how their dad proposed...

愛之語 (Five Love Languages)

Recently I'm reading this book online.

so far I'm in the first few chapters.

I think I'm struggling in some similar situations from the book.

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一旦恋爱的经验跑到一个程度(请记得，平均一般的恋爱经验仅存活两年)，我们就又回到真实的世界，开始维护起自己来；所表达的愿望，开始不同于对方。他想要性关系，她太累了；想要买部新车，她说：「荒唐」；她想要拜望她的父母，他说：「我不要花那么多时间跟你家人在一起。」他想要参加垒球赛，她说：「你爱垒球胜过爱我。」渐渐地，亲密的幻觉消失了；个人的愿望、情绪、想法和行为模式全现出原形。他们是两个不同的个体，心思并没有融合在一起，情绪也只有在爱的海洋中混和一会儿罢了。现在，现实的波浪开始分离他们，使他们跨出情网。这个时候，他们或者退缩、分居、离婚，开始寻求一个新的恋爱经验；或者在神魂颠倒期的陶醉感清醒之际，开始学习彼此相爱的艰难功课。

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当你配偶的情绪爱箱满了之时，他在你的爱里会觉得安全；整个世界看起来明亮了，他会走出来，发挥生命中最高的潜力。可是，当爱箱空了的时候，他会觉得被利用，而不是被爱；整个世界看起来黯然无光，他变得似乎无法在社会上发挥出原有潜力。

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2 Months and 12 Days...

only 2 months and 12 days left... 

I'm kinda nervous now...

I start to panic...

recently Joseph and I all feel stressed...

not only because the wedding, but also our new life.

even though we almost sent out all the invitations, I am still not sure about it....

Am I really ready for a marriage?

I really dunno what to do and how to do...

Kitchen Remodeling...

well... even though it's very tiring, we still learned a lot...

The contractor finished the flooring job past Sunday.

Overall it's ok, but I think their closing job is kinda sloppy...

The kitchen tiles are not that straight....

Anyway, we change another contractor for kitchen remodeling...

We want to upgrade our kitchen this time.

We went to a lot of granite stores recently.

and here'r from my final list....

Black Galaxy

Uba Tuba

They look kinda dark, right?

so far we haven't decided to upgrade it or not...

It depends on the quotes.

Will update it later once we decide to do it or not...

Designing Floor...

I found a good website to estimate the amount of tiles we need.

This is the one I like.

However, I want it a little bit different so I drew this one.

This is our utility room. The black line on the top left is door.

W stands for washer and D stands for dryer.

The floor will be like this one. The contractor will put "Texas Beige" tiles on the purple areas and "Canyon" tiles on the small white areas.

Hope this will look good...(It'd better look good... the contractor charges us $200 more for this extra job...)

Shop for Flooring...

Past 2 weeks, Joseph has been requesting quotes on our new house's flooring.

Finally we decided to hire a contractor to do it. This contractor is cheaper and we need to buy the material we want.

Last Saturday, we went to 2 Home Depot, 1 Lowes, and 1 tile store.

Yesterday, we went to another Home Depot and Lowes near our new house.

Finally we found the one I like and within our budget. (Joseph said I'm too picky...)

Here's our laminate floor. (Pergo Springdale Dark Cherry Glueless Laminate Flooring) 

Here'r our tiles. (12"x12" Texas Beige and 6"x6" Canyon)

 

We bought all these in Lowes. (This is a nice store.)

Right now Lowes has 15% off on in-stock laminate floor.

Plus Joseph got a 10% off coupon from har.com.

This is really a cool experience. It is too bad that we do not have enough time and budget to shop for more.

I believe this is a good opportunity for a first-house owner like us.

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Because of this experience, we notice our difference more.

Joseph cares more about the value and practicability but I am more artistic.

so we came to an agreement.

He set the limit and I make decision.

倒數三個月...

已經十月中了... which means my wedding is getting closer...
其實這個月發生很多事情，只是一直沒機會來update...
房子下禮拜一就close了，這真的要感謝神，
感謝神在這件事上的安排，
讓我們還有機會能整修房子．

再來勒...
最近是真的有點累，
在學習著早睡早起的功課，
其實這也有好處，
第一，跟Joseph的作息差不多(但是還是趕不上他五六點就起床)
第二，有比較多可以利用的時間

其實最近結婚的進度還算ok~
只是只有Joseph有相機，所以無法update上來，
最近我做了些什麼呢？
喜帖Heidi幫我從台灣運回來，（真是謝謝Heidi)
這一個禮拜在印RSVP，預計十一月初就可以發帖子了，
還在尋找伴娘的禮服，(我的伴娘們都很有主見...:p)
Anyway... It's only three months left...
kinda worry now...
kept asking myself if I'm ready to be a wife and a daughter-in-law...

優點缺點

最近常常自卑感作祟，三天兩頭就自己生悶氣，

今天晚上吃飯時，跟阿姨討論到昨天Vivian帶的workshop，

我提到Joseph很厲害，看一下就批哩啪拉的歸納出來，

阿姨就問我是不是又崇拜他了？

她說要趕快把優點寫出來，

等結婚後，滿腦子都會是對方的缺點，

吵不完的時候再回來看看自己寫的，

會提醒自己當初愛對方的理由.......

最近在整理照片，看到了過去的彼此，

常會怪對方，＂想當初你是這樣這樣，怎麼現在變成那樣那樣？＂

好像忘記了是自己讓對方變成那樣那樣的，

其實Joseph的優點不少，只是因為越愛對方，便會越想改變對方，

這其實是不對的，現在，

我要開始學習把缺點當優點，這樣，世界會不會美麗一些呢？？

Hsing

又要下offer了...

昨天下午Joseph, 我, Aunt Agnes and Uncle Ken四個人去看了一間95年的房子，(House A)

我們四個都滿喜歡，都決定要下offer了，

Joseph就想說再去看一次之前那一家，(House B)

結果沒想到我阿姨她們兩間都很喜歡，

這下子我和Joseph不知道該怎麼辦啦....

兩棟房子各有各的好，真的不知道該選哪一棟...

晚上睡覺前，Joseph asked that we should pray together.

So we pray about this before we went to sleep.

We pray that God will show us the best house.

今天一大早House A(原本Joseph要下offer的那間)的seller's agent打來要我們快下offer，

因為seller快要把房子從MLS (Multiple Listing Service)拿下來，

Joseph就口頭上跟兩間房子的agents談了一下價錢，

沒想到House B很快就回應了，同時House A在"har.com"上已經找不到了...(Joseph說已經withdraw了...)

沒想到　神的回應竟是這麼的快...一下子就把我們的掛慮解除了，

現在就得看看我們Joseph這個agent的功力啦...

放點照片來看看...

 

 

hehe....purple master bedroom...

這家的女主人跟我有一樣的taste...

希望這次能一切順利，

求　神保佑...

Wedding Logo

JiangJiang.... Here comes our first wedding logo.

Designed by my cousin Margaret and revised by Hsing.

I really dunno which one is better, but I think I like the first one better because I can easily see the date on the ring....

Will decide it soon so I can use it for my wedding invitation, RSVP, program, etc.

Joseph even thinks about using this one to be his "future" office logo... :p

Hope no one will steal our design....:p

喜帖搞定...

Finally... 終於把喜帖搞定了....

之前原本想要自己做，作成像這樣子的,(designed by clara (1st), 阿喵 (2nd))

結果Joseph and my mom都不支持我自己做...

所以只好用訂的啦...經過好一陣子的搜尋，終於找到還算可以的...
就是這個啦...(Designed by Tutu Card)

一切順利...接下來要開始設計我的program還有RSVP啦...

希望接下去能一切順利....